The growing consciousness regarding ecologically conscious architecture mandates a deeper understanding of the strategies that may be adopted by designers towards achieving this goal. With the advent of building information modelling (BIM) and the associated paradigm shift in the design process, it has become increasingly possible to make informed decisions earlier on in the design process. Despite this advancement, the architectural realm continues to lack computational resources that are capable of providing formal guidelines, through a generative process, that serve as a starting point for sustainable design. Towards overcoming this limitation, this paper will describe a computational tool that generates buildable performance envelopes in response to aspects of a site that are influential in designing sustainably: climate and context. These envelopes are created in a generative manner through the utilization of a voxel (three-dimensional pixel) matrix, which continually updates itself based on formal elements created by the user. Facilitating the process of making ecologically conscious design decisions at the earliest stages of design, which is the primary goal of this tool, more substantially increases the achieved energy optimization.
Illustrative building designs presented in the paper resulting from the testing of this tool in contrasting climate zones, such as Miami, Florida (ASHRAE Zone 01) and Aspen, Colorado (ASHRAE Zone 07), confirms the assertion that the performance envelopes generated with this tool serve only as a guideline for optimized sustainable design, and not as the final form of the building itself.